Housing
Seven rentals, 1,500 hours of work, and the first lawyer in her family.
Antonia Cuffee spent her childhood moving from one rented place to the next. Helping build her family's first real home taught her how to finish what she started.
Before Antonia Cuffee had a home, she had addresses. Her family rented seven different houses and apartments while she was growing up. When her mother was finally approved for a Habitat for Humanity house, they were living in an apartment above a small-time drug dealer.
Her mother was a single parent with very little money and no car. Approval did not mean being handed keys. It meant committing to 1,500 hours of work on the house, and showing up at the build site every Saturday morning.
So that is what they did. Antonia has written that watching a house rise from a plan, one Saturday at a time, taught her something she has used ever since: set a goal, make a plan, and do not give up.
She earned a bachelor's degree from Temple University. In May 2011 she graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law, and was sworn into the Maryland Bar. She is the first lawyer in her family.
The house was built by Habitat Choptank in Easton, Maryland.